#tbd|Star Trek au

[brooklynislandgirl]

Advent Day I ~ Old and New @respondedinkind

Christmas means a lot of things to Beth, but mostly it means peace and family. She remembers eagerly awaiting for the ships to bring pines and spruces in refrigerated containers, and some neighbours simply decorating palm trees in their yards. She remembers stopping and visiting the bearded and red suited Santa Claus bearing his chest to the tropical sun and raising his hand in a universal greeting ~hence why he's called Shaka Santa~ while beside his statue, one of Tutu Mele {Mrs Claus in formality} wearing a grin, her square eye-glasses and her finest mu'umu'u. She remembers feasts down on the beach where members of the community pulled together to bring food and drink enough for everyone, and no one was turned away. There would be carols sung along with the soft strains of ukuleles. There would be Aunties sharing pumpkin crunch bars. Hulas would be danced, presents exchanged. But star ships don't really have anything that can compare. Most of the time, the crew seem to ignore the ceaseless flow of time, marking it all down not as days and nights but strings of numbers that create a stardate. Beth remembers. Keeps track of time as far as earth-dates in her personal journal.

~*~ Weeks ago, she'd taken the liberty to escort Khan back to his quarters. And while he never offered her entry, she couldn't help but notice the barren state of it. She saw no photographs, no hint of anything personal to him. And maybe that made sense in the time when he politely inclined his head, his face an unmoving and expressionless thing, reminding her of nothing so much as an achingly haunting classical statue. She bid him a good evening, and turned back down the corridor. Mind lost in thought as she thought to herself how sad and lonely it all seemed. Not that he would admit to anything like that. But surely, even Commander Spock was prone to sentimental things. Then it occurred to her that maybe… maybe Khan had nothing of his old life. Nothing of home, of kin. Maybe nothing at all. She recorded these thoughts as she did most of her opinions. In letters she would never again get to send to her brother. She tells the idea of him that in some ways she is starting to identify with her mysterious patient, or at least empathise with him. How he and Khan might have been friends. A lot of little things that held no bearing on her assignment or the man's place on the ship. And then after making herself comfortable, she began her secret project. The first order that would take the longest was the blanket. The outermost border was knitted in white. Then cream, then alternating cream and a neutral sort of brown. These colours represented dry and wet sand from her beaches and the way the colours blended down by water's edge. Brown gave way to a thin sort of blue. The kiss between land and sea. That blue became the turquoise and deeper shades of the sea as the ocean fell away into itself, and finally turned to the colour of his eyes that she has no name for and doesn't have the paint to try and replicate it in any other medium. Knitting the cover took all of her time so that it would be ready in the time she wanted to have it. Wide enough to span the size of his bunk, long enough to wrap him shoulder to toe. She doesn't think Khan gets cold like she can, but that isn't the point really. It is a gift. Something for him to own, something that is his and no one else's. So what if she sacrificed a little sleep in order to finish it? Beth has never needed much rest to be fully capable, and she wanted to be kind. The second gift is much more personal in nature perhaps. Or at least in an entirely different way. When Beth was little, her grandfather had given her a little scroll case necklace. The clever design incorporated her 'aumakua ~a family guardian~ in the form of turtles swimming endlessly. Honu are seen as a symbol of wisdom, of long lives, of perseverance. All things he wished to impart in her, and all things she sees in Khan the more she gets to know him. It does make her smile a little when she thinks of the incredibly hard outer shell that protects the soft living heart within. She can think of nothing more appropriate to describe him. What Beth didn't account for, though, was getting caught trying to be a secret Santa. She'd talked her way into getting his quarters opened. She'd set the ribbon-tied blanket on the foot of his bunk, the necklace settled atop of it, and she was fully expecting to make good her escape when she turned…and came face to face with the man in question. Beth blinks. Her cheeks are fire and she lowers her gaze. "I…I can explain."

[therapardalis]

['Best Memes Ever' from @paramounticebound.]

You know the rules and so do I. ;) ------------

Fuck the rules, Thera almost growled. Almost, barely curbed by the piping of a tiny voice in the back of her mind, that small piece of Starfleet scrambling to remind her of what Khan might do if he heard her say it. That he might take it as tacit permission to ...

Do what she was becoming very motivated to do herself, if the bunch of heavily armored beings at the bar didn't stop giving the wait-staff, barkeeps and other patrons a hard time. They'd arrived later in the day with the vaguely unsteady gait that suggested they'd visited a few other venues already, and were becoming more raucous and noisy as time went on.

You know the rules ... Those being that Khan was permitted liberty on the Starbase provided he remained supervised, and did not get involved in anything going on there. Which meant that she, as his minder, had to go along with those rules as well. Even if the grinding of her teeth made it difficult to finish her drink.

Over at the bar, one of the ruffians grabbed a passing waitress and yanked her in against him. The woman shrieked and Thera was on her feet, heading full tilt into the fray ...

[therapardalis]

"Kiss." Thera reiterated, in a tone of 'did I stutter?', "Isn't that the sort of thing you've been pushing for this whole time?" Or, conversely, what she'd suspected he didn't really want - or only thought he did until the reality came to call. Until this reality came to call, at least, as he wandered off on ... no, she didn't understand, but, "What truth? What truth do you want, Q? You wanted my attention; you have it. You wanted my interest? That's improving. Unless you've just been leading me on this whole time, which would be disappointing."

His hand rose alongside her head, and she schooled herself not to eye it suspiciously, or to remark that it reminded her of a Vulcan. Because he was right, this wasn't about giving in. Thera didn't give in, she just made up her mind, acted on it, and took the consequences. Abruptly her head turned, and her pursed lips hit that lifted hand - maybe on the extended fingers, maybe somewhere else, she didn't particularly aim. And then, just as fast, she took advantage of her grip on his clothing the plant the next one on his mouth; far less dramatic than the smooch she'd intended at the start, half a second then gone. But the deed was done.

This anticipation was felt in the air, like something that smothered his intentions. Q was lost in remembering all paths he had seen in the timelines of reality. Some miscalculations led them to this moment and he could not place how. He had done this many times with others. Picard, Sisko, Janeway, and Vash; never had any of them broken from the path they forged. It was almost as if something had redirected the woman's choice to what would happen next. "Kiss?" His face appeared to be of concern, considering her words. The idea that she was trying to lead him into such an intimate idea for humankind was ambitious.

"Pulling at my attire might bring me in, but will it be exactly as you desire?" Her grip on his uniform undeniably felt. "For either of us to give in to such intensity would be to break from the undeniable reality that we both know is possible in an impossible way." His hand rose to hover next to her head, with two fingers pressing against each other. "The choice isn't which of us will give in. It's whether or not this is true, or if time must be erased for us to find the truth of this moment." In the continuum; human connections were outlawed, but this Q had often defied his own for the sake of his desires to further their stake in the universes.

[brooklynislandgirl]

@fasciinating {{from: xx}}

Spaced.

Utterly and truly spaced.That's what she is and to make matters worse, there is no part of her that could bring herself to lie to him. Not simply because he is a senior officer, but…she can't really explain it. Something about Commander Spock raises the small hairs at the back of her neck. If she dared to speak a falsehood, he would know. He would be able to see it in her eyes. Read it on her lips. Know it and pluck it right out of her soul. But mercifully he does not seem inclined to pursue the matter beyond metaphorically waving away her apology and with that graciousness the tension she was holding in her shoulders, in her back, seems to drain away. Gives a little room for something different, a bashful amusement. "Well, Sir, I have heard rumours that you're incapable of illness." Well, that's one of the ones she's heard. She'd never repeat some of the wildly more popular ones. "Oh. Of course." She shouldn't have presumed ~anticipated, if a kinder word for it was sought~ his purpose or desire. She nods when he tells her it is an ordinary thing, nothing that would require intervention of greater magnitude and she tilts her head. Curiosity knits her brows loosely, and thins the fullness of her lips though she doesn't interupt again. A quick glance from head to toe shows nothing to be concerned about in an immediate sense. She also doesn't detect the nearly imperceptibly faint traces of blood or infection, broken skin that might be hiding under his immaculate uniform. Another thing she wouldn't dream of saying aloud. What she sees is a person. Exhausted beyond words but perhaps too used to it, one to whom duty trumps any personal concern. She sees shadows of older agony beneath fresh-concealed pain. Like snow, and how it looks blue when there is ice beneath it. She sees a mask so carefully constructed that perhaps he, himself, has forgotten what he might be beneath it. Or. She could be projecting. But she's always been sensitive to things like that. That is a Beth thing, and while in the med-bay, she is only Nurse Riley. She nods at his request. She pulls up his file in a flurry of delicate touches, and only scans through it briefly for what is needed. She has not been invited into his confidences and it would be arrogant beyond belief on her part to presume that she could be privy to all the secrets his file holds. She would also be lying through her sharp little teeth if she wasn't curious about the exact differences between a full human, a full Vulcan, and himself. Once she has the required dosage, she addresses the Commander once more, now a soft but nurturing tone to her voice and a far more pleasant beside manner in place. "If you'd be so kind, Sir, to have a seat?" She couldn't reach his neck without straining, and finding something to climb on and meet him eye to eye would lack an incredible dignity. "I'm sure you're well aware of all the warnings that come with this dose but I can't help think that maybe you should talk to Doctor McCoy about the steady increase of the kelaromol you've been taking. Or, if that doesn't suit your needs, there are other things that might help with its efficacy. If I might be so bold, that is."

[therapardalis]

[Various Question Meme from @justxcountrydoctor.]

❛ What are you doing out here by yourself? ❜ ------------

"I'm not 'out' anywhere, Bones." Pedantry. A reminder that you couldn't randomly be outside of a spaceship unless you wanted to make a small but spectacular blot amongst the vacuum before your molecules drifted away.

She couldn't even say she was going out to get fresh air, given it was the same re-processed oxygen-base as the rest of the ship. But at least there on the starboard observation deck, stars glinting beyond the transparent dome, there were fewer people breathing it.

And every now and then, that was what she needed.

Thera exhaled, cast her eyes up to his reflection in the dome instead of turning around. "How did you even find me?"

[mairaiscarrierofthepaperclips]

My (Maira's) fics!

A handy list of my fics, for anyone who is interested.

If you'd like to be notified when I post tidbits, snippets, or full fics, interact with this post! 😊

9-1-1 (Buddie)

Current WIPs:

The Mummy AU - pretty much what it says on the tin, with some fun change ups just because I can - (currently 42k words, and we're maybe halfway done? 🙃) - HOPING TO PUBLISH IN TIME FOR Christmas 2024!

The One Where Buck Finds Out - based on a s2 episode of Friends (IYKYK)

Star Trek quote + indulging my hatred of the Elder Buckleys

Gravedigger AU - fans of Bones will know all about this one.

Accidental three words - Eddie says something out loud instead of in his head.

Completed:

for I cannot, cannot go - Eddie's world is (briefly, horrifically) ripped apart.

each note a chapter - Buck is having trouble finding the perfect scent. So, he tries to think of his favourite scent, instead. It goes about as well as expected. (Written for Flufftober 2024)

no others, before thee - Eddie is kidnapped. It does not end well for the idiots who thought he was the most powerful one. (Written for @summerofbuddie 2024)

let the bough break, let it come down crashing - Buck breaks up with his soulmate on a Tuesday. (Written for @summerofbuddie 2024)

the clarification of equilibrium - or, the one where Eddie gets jealous about a conversation, and attempts to explain how body positioning works. (Written for @summerofbuddie 2024)

leave it out there, no regrets - Or, the one where Buck is completely oblivious to Eddie declaring his love, and Eddie (briefly) contemplates leaving the country forever because of it.

when deeds and words are in accord (my whole world is transformed) - Or, the one where Eddie sings his feelings, and Buck loses his mind.

hard kick, slow burn - Or, the one in the bar with the dancing.

Buddie Flufftober 2023 Collection - accidental kiss, answering the wrong phone, proposals, idiots in love... We have it all, folks

i opened my eyes (and all i saw was you) - the Meddie friendship fic inspired by a Tumblr post.

paradise under a pine tree - speed run friends-to-fiancés Valentine's Day 2024 fic - why, yes, I based this one-shot around a pun, thank you for asking.

take my hand (take my whole life too) - magical realism fic. Contrary to what he believes, Buck is not actually allergic to Eddie.

take this life and make it yours (take this heart and let it love again) - . . . or, the one where Buck finally figures out he's in love with Eddie, only for things to not go as planned. (inspired by A Scene from s4 of Supernatural (IYKYK)).

wild again, beguiled again - or, the one after the (7.04) Buck/Tommy kiss. Nothin' but fluff. 💖💜💙

TBD WIPs:

take this life sequel - Eddie's POV. A truly ridiculous level of angst.

Past Lives Soulmates AU - my muse is not letting this go, but it won't be up before the new season. RIP.

locked room fic - inspired by That Kiss from New Girl. Partially drafted.

apocalypse fic - snow. so much snow.

deeds and words sequel - partially drafted, established relationship cuteness

And so many more

Schitt's Creek (Davrick)

WIPs

saving patrick - inspired by the Saving Grace episode from 9-1-1: Lone Star. Almost complete.

The Rookie (Chenford)

Complete:

you're in my arms (and all the world is calm) - inspired by the dance scene from Enchanted, with a Lucifer Morningstar and Chloe Decker cameo. POV Tim. 9k.

WIPs:

you're in my arms sequel - POV Lucy. Almost complete.

lullaby - Tim realises some stuff. Partially drafted.

mystery spot - a.k.a Tim's very bad, no good day. Partially drafted.

[therapardalis]

"Well then there's no hope for you." Lightly, to show she's kidding - even if Leonard's eternal pessimism might think that seriously some of the time. She glances at the readouts attached to the treadmill, recognising the ones that coincide with the cardio machines in the gym; the others are a bunch of graphs and wiggly lines that she has no idea how to read.

She's also, after a second, aware of the look he's giving her even before he speaks. "Bones ..." There's a bit of a puff in her voice now, but nothing that interrupts, "I was a Marine. We're coached and trained for violence. It's a tool and an art, and we can't go around losing control." They were like the dirty secret of Starfleet's 'peaceful exploration', ready to go in when other measures failed.

The machine beeped, warning of the speed-up in 30 seconds, and she flicked Leonard a look in return. "I'm glad we're friends." Genuine, though maybe, suddenly, a little bit deep, "But I could really handle you trusting me some of the time. If you tell me you've got extra tests for my exam, I really am still gonna turn up."

"Oh, har har, why is it that every time that comes up i want to puke? Playing doctors indeed." Leonard then chuckles at her with a cocked eyebrow "I don't think that anything is going to improve my mood Thera, i'm just a grumpy old man." He tilts his head to the side and looks at the readings on treadmill "Your readings on the test are within normal parameters and dare i say it even better than your last one but we still have one more speed to go through before you're done and that will take about 5 minutes after you've started it so you're close to getting back to your quarters."

Leonard looks at her back for a moment then sighs "Remind me never to piss you off enough to do something more than just break my arms because that would be hard enough being a doctor, i really don't need to be a patient in my own sickbay." He then goes about thinking about what she had just said to him. She could be a bit violent at times, but he had never imagined that she wasn't losing her shit after she broke someone's arm for god's sake. Leonard cocks an eyebrow and tilts his head to the side as he watches her run. "I wouldn't want to piss you off anyway because i think according to how bad it is i might lose your friendship and that would not be my intension."

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (7-13 Apr 2024)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 If This Is As Far As We Go (BeauRadley) - 124K, stucky no-powers AU - after a year of being phenomenal hookup buddies, bucky ends their arrangement & throws steve into a tailspin - slow burn, angsty, oblivious steve slowly realizing his true feelings, good supporting cast

😊 Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid (Ngozi Ukazu & Mad Rupert) - cute graphic novel about art students forming a softball team to exploit a financial aid loophole

😍 Death in the Spires (KJ Charles, author; Tom Lawrence, narrator) - historical murder mystery set in 1905 Oxford - another KJC absolute banger: incredible sense of place, fantastic characters, perfectly done 'whodunnit' tension and a HIGHLY SATISFACTORY resolution. Loved every word

💖💖 +76K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

The Man, the Myth, the Legend (sparklyslug) - Check Please!: gen, 2.9K - Holster's beatboxing skills brings all the a capella groups to the Haus - a short, fun, funny, outsider POV fic

Say it louder for the people in the back (redhook) - MCU: shrinkyclinks, 14K - reread, forever fave - sometimes you just get a yearning to reread the best glory hole fic ever written

In Focus (sparklyslug) - Check Please!: zimbits, 6K - Jack's photography eye knows what's up before his conscious brain does

Entering Orbit (museaway) - Star Trek AOS: spirk, 30K - good post-AOS canon-divergent fic where Jim goes home to Iowa to escape the press & Spock joins him

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Hot Ones - Conan O'Brien

QI - series S, ep 13

Game Changer - s6, e5 {Bingoception}

Um, Actually - s9, e4

D20: Fantasy High: Junior Year - "Dawn of Justice" (s21, e14)

D20: Adventuring Party - "We're Running on 200%" (s16, e14)

Death In Paradise - s11, e4-8; s12 e0-8, s13 e0-8

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Working - How to Be Both a Critic and a Creator

Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #10: Of the Reaching Green

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for WWW ep10 "Of the Reaching Green"

Short Wave - How Climate Change And Physics Affect Baseball

Consider This from NPR - Bad Omens Or The Cycle of Nature? How The Ancient World Viewed Eclipses

⭐ Armchair Expert - Anna Kendrick [Rerelease from 1/9/23]

Today, Explained - Is college still worth it?

The Sporkful - Jewish Food Is More Than Matzoh Balls

WikiHole - BEYONCÉ (with Zoë Chao, Nat Faxon and Poppy Liu)

⭐ All Songs Considered - Songs to make you laugh, with 'Weird Al' Yankovic

In Defense of Fandom - Season 2 Episode 2: Putting my theory to the test

Dinner’s on Me - Orville Peck

⭐ Switched on Pop - Chasing old sounds: Djo's "End of Beginning" with Joe Keery

⭐ 99% Invisible #577 - The Society of Ambiance Makers and Elegant Persons

⭐ Vibe Check - A Special Conversation with Ada Limón

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Brown Mountain Lights

Short Wave - The Order Your Siblings Were Born in May Play a Role in Identity and Sexuality

⭐ Code Switch - How Frederick Douglass launched generations of Black and Irish solidarity

⭐ Decoder Ring - Can the “Bookazine” Save Magazines?

⭐ Imaginary Worlds - African Sci-Fi Looks to a Future Climate

Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #11: Promises Promises

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for WWW ep11 "Promises Promises"

What Next: TBD - Does Google Suck Now?

Short Wave - What To Know About The New EPA Rule Limiting 'Forever Chemicals' In Tap Water

Code Switch - Reflecting on the legacy of O.J. Simpson

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Atlas Obscura Live: Two Places And A Lie

Dear Prudence - I Lost a Lot of Weight and Now I Enjoy Being a Mean Girl. Help!

It's Been a Minute - The car culture wars; plus, the problem with child stars

Endless Thread - RIP Lil Miquela

Shedunnit - You Probably Imagined It!

Armchair Expert - John Cena

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - [One Shot] A County Affair: Prologue

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Presenting Bonnie Raitt

Lowrider Oldies

Huge House Anthems

Djo

Classic Soul BBQ

A LA SALA [Khruangbin] {2024}

Presenting Khruangbin

Happy Beats

'80s One-Hit Wonders

Feel-Good Classic Rock

[brooklynislandgirl]

@ensnchekov

She stands on the back lawn, just behind Andy. The garden is in the last bloom of summer and fills the air with local and exotic flowers from other places her mother has worked, including some of the more distant planets with Minshara class designations with similar conditions as Earth. But for as beautifully scented and coloured it is, no single aspect is left to its wild nature. Down to the smallest leaf it has been carefully manicured to within a centimetre of its life. Every blade of grass carefully measured by an army of gardeners. It contrasts the flag stone courtyard with its fountain, the white outer walls of the sprawling single floor manor that over looks the bay. The land has been in the Admiral's family for generations. So have most of the things on it. Everything is pristine and perfect, right down to the three people waiting for their new guest. There's no fence or force-field around the cliff's perimeter, he'll need to be warned about that. It wouldn't do at all if he were to fall or be swept out to sea. Her mother and the Admiral have been talking quietly about it for months, and only seemingly consulted her brother and her when they'd already made their decision. From that quiet moment at the dinner table to her mother's overseeing of setting up the guest room, to the few hours before now, Andy's practically floated on an cloud of enthusiasm. A young boy about Beth's age give or take. A new sibling to shelter under wing, one he doesn't feel he needs to be over protective one. Does he like sports? Does he read graphic novels and old stories? Does he like to tinker with ancient technologies? An army of questions and possibilities have filled Andy's thoughts. Her mother of course reminds her children to be sensitive. The boy lost his parents, she tells them, and might not wish to speak of that, nor of the years he has spent more or less on his own. Be sensitive to the fact that his culture and life are vastly different than their own, and do try to make him feel welcome. The Admiral himself says very little, except to point out gruffly, and perhaps intentionally pointedly, that the boy has test scores like none he's seen before. That his intellect is a rare treasure and they could all surely appreciate how special he is because of. That in some ways he reminds your old man of myself, and of course, you Andrew. She says nothing, everyone knows she's smarter than her sibling, more artistic, and in some ways, more cultured. The boy is still better. She wonders if he hates it. She wonders if he takes pride in being a golden child. She wonders, too, if he knows how to swim. "Heads up, make yourselves presentable, there is the shuttle." Her mother's voice breaks into her thoughts and Beth finds herself standing at her full if unimpressive height. Hands smooth down her skirt, tucks dark hair back into the braids it had been wrestled into. Andy stands at parade rest, hands tucked behind his back, and her mother is a vision in black and gold, slender as a reed and a little taller than her only daughter though her heels make up a few extra inches. Even into her fifties, her mother is one of the most beautiful women in the world, regal and maternal at once. Beth might have felt better if she'd been permitted to merely watch this all from the window of her room. The shuttle lands on the pad as smooth as glass. As soon as the hatch opens and the boy comes into view, her mother steps forward with a radiant smile parting her lips. "Welcome, Mr Chekov. Chuvstvuyte sebya kak doma."

[therapardalis]

[Empire Strikes Back Meme from @justxcountrydoctor.]

"I've finished my circle and I haven't picked up any life readings." ------------

" ... Same." It's easy to tell from Thera's voice that she's not terribly happy about that. "Well, I've got a few smaller signals, animals and birds ..." She pauses, considering that, half-listening to Bones' breathing over the comm. "Have you been running up a hill or something? Or is the heavy breathing just for me?"

Glancing back at her tri-corder, she gives a soft hiss of her own. "How long ago did we pick up the distress beacon?" If the local wildlife had approached the crashed shuttle, that meant it had been sitting there silent for a while.

"I'm gonna switch over to general bio-readings. I get the feeling we should be looking for corpses here, not life-signs."

[therapardalis]

Thera isn't the least certain why this moment made her snap. It still bubbles, angry and hot, and though somewhere underneath she knows Jim is laughing at himself and not at her, she's struggling not to bark at him again. There are words to say, and this is probably their chance, but she's doing her best to cool them off before she lets fly.

"It just really, really bites to try to look out for you guys and get growled at and accused. I don't expect you to kiss my feet about it, but not having to take a verbal punch to the jaw would be nice."

And maybe that was partly her own fault for not saying it sooner. Thera took a long breath, arms folded, shuffle-poked her feet a second before huffing it out and moving over to the table as well. Drink didn't solve everything - or, really anything much - but it would feel good to have one now.

"I think we all three have trouble accepting that we're only human."

Jim looks at her wide-eyed for a minute at the outburst then laughs with a small smile on his face "Well, if i knew you felt that strongly about it i would have come to terms with the fact that you cared a long time ago but being me and the disaster that i am, i didn't." He gets up fro the couch and walks over to her "You know i have a hard time with talking about things like emotions but i think i've done a pretty good job showing that i care about you too right? i mean, i do give as well as i receive or try to anyway." Jim then cocks an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side "i think Bones knows that i care about him too in my own way."

He runs a hand through his hair and sighs "Well, he's a good one to get a head of steam up over sometimes. He does after all somehow always find a way to scan me or somehow or other examine me all the time." Jim chuckles and smiles fondly at the thought of the other man " i wouldn't say that we both bitch at you but bitching about him is one of my favorite past times." He moves over to a table and gets a couple of glasses "Join me in a drink to the fact that we are all still around to complain about each other." Jim brings out a bottle of bourbon with a smirk

[kakushigo]

WIP Title Tag Game

Rules: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

tagged by @lungache

(for the sake of transparency, I have omitted: One WIP I cannot publically talk about rn (part of a fandom challenge) & all 232 files labeled "untitled" "untitled file" or "name tbd", and anything that hasn't been worked on since April of this year. My WIPs collects corpses)

tag you're it: @synonemous

Under cut b/c it was still long af

After the War

Kidnapping Tag

Two Holmes Fans & An Ellery Queen Fanboy Solve a Murder

Random Scenes

In which there's one bed...twice

But he was dyslexic!

The Resort

The Outline

Just Dying, No Big Deal

Kudou Shinichi's Found Family was (mostly) Kidnapped

Death Doesn't want Detectives

Her Bones are Rotten

A Dying Heart Still Beats

Day 1: Moon

Day 2: Secrets/Lies/Beliefs

One Parted, Nevermore

Shinichi buys Kaito from Count D

To the Stars

All our gods are Dead & Gone

I always thought it'd be me

To Consume Holy Flesh

KID & the Kid

The KID & Hakuba

Case of the Shrunken Four

Kaishin Arranged Marriage

More 50 shades of Weilan

Renegade Vangard + Conduit Zhao Yunlan

love.exe

feral baby wei

Arthor!Yunlan

Thief Wei (part 1-4)

Stolen Minutes of a Life

Just this Once (Everyday for the Rest of Our Lives)

To Kill Death

Resource Scarcity

Mer May

A Warm Meal from the Hot

Weilan Star Trek Au

Looking for God: Serious Inquiries Only

The Eastern Gate

The Grave Things

CopLan/Librarian Shen Wei

Mandelorian AU

Haru's Letters to the Living

On the Edge of Nowhere

In a Mirror

My Children are Dead

Beloved Flesh Consumed

The Quiet of the Night

Blood & Roses

Thief Dongsik

No Justice for the Dead

Brainrot

Keeper of my Heart

Love in Handcuffs

Fourth time is the Charm

Once more, with Feeling

Consume me Whole

Library of Love

Haru Solaris

A Family Divided

To Death Do Us Part

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (28 Jan-3 Feb 2024)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club #4) (Richard Osman, author; Fiona Shaw, narrator) - still loving the characters, love to hang out with them & Osman's plots move along nicely so you don't get bored at all. Fiona Shaw's narration is great & as a little treat she & Osman have a nice little chat at the end.

🥰 Four Letter Word For Intercourse (bendingsignpost) - 194K, destiel AU - adult college student Dean & professor (and phone sex worker) Cas - LOVE this fic so much & had kind of forgotten about it until it came up as a rec in one of my romance discord servers. Just, so good.

😊 Mrs Sidhu Investigates (Suk Pannu, author; full voice cast) - 2 episodes of the BBC Radio 4 program: #1 Murder with Masala; #2 Mrs Sidhu's Dangerous Highland Game - I prefer the slight changes made for the TV show's characterizations but still eminently enjoyable. (Meera Syal still absolutely rules!)

🥰 Lucky Bounce (Cait Nary) - extremely delightful hockey romance. Low/no angst, charming, cutie MCs. Definitely in the 'no plot, just vibes' category which honestly I love when done skillfully.

💖💖 +102K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Ye Olde YouTube Love Story (Aria_Lerendeair) - The Sandman: Dreamling, 7K - love dreamling human AUs

Any Givens Sundae (dancinbutterfly) - Justified: Boyd/Raylan, 25K - excellently written 'what-if' pinging off a random line of dialogue: what IF Raylan had retired & decided to sell ice cream?

A Warning from Henry the Eighth (Writer_at_the_Table) - "I'm Henry VIII I Am" - Herman's Hermits: , 152 - a villianelle about I'm 'Enry The Eighth by Herman's Hermits - the creativity & cleverness of fan makers truly is boundless

master of a nothing place (strzyga) - Star Trek: Spirk, 6K - short, great fic about Spock going feral when they're trapped on a planet

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Austin City Limits - Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo (s49, e9)

Austin City Limits - Duran Duran (s47, e11)

Murdoch Mysteries - s16, e7

Dirty Laundry - s3, e11

D20: Fantasy High: Junior Year - "Under Pressure" (s21, e4)

D20: Adventuring Party - "A Sea of Effluvia" (s16, e4)

Hazbin Hotel - s1, e1

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

What Next: TBD - Why Is Everybody Sick?

Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Cannabis Marketing

⭐ The Sporkful - Why Hibachi Gets Complicated

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Guerrero

How To! - How To Be Free Of Body Shame

⭐ The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Hello From The Otter Side

The Allusionist - 188. Lipread

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week - Nature's Weirdest Sleepers, Iron Maiden Myths, Parking Psychology

⭐ Today, Explained - Living in Zyn

It's Been a Minute - Ayesha Rascoe on 'HBCU Made' — and some good old college memories

⭐ Switched on Pop - The b*tch of loving musical theater (with Bridger Winegar)

99% Invisible #568 - Don't Forget to Remember

⭐ Vibe Check - You’ve Got Mouth Bangs, Girl

I Said No Gifts! - Lou Wilson Disobeys Bridger

Well, Now - How ER Taught Thousands Of Viewers About Cervical Cancer

Off Menu - Ep 220: Peter Capaldi

Films To Be Buried With - Kyle MacLachlan

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Seeking The (Minnesota-shaped) Forest Through The Trees - Part 1 & 2

Welcome to Night Vale #241 - He Is Still Holding a Knife

I Said No Gifts! - Zac Oyama Disobeys Bridger

Dear Prudence - Am I a Bigot If I Don’t Want to Date Foreigners? Help!

What Next: TBD - The Taylor Swift Deepfake Saga

It's Been a Minute - Charlamagne tha Pundit?; plus, was Tony Soprano white?

⭐ All Songs Considered - Why we still love Green Day

Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - The Marketing of Taylor Swift: (Taylor's Version)

Consider This from NPR - Masturbation Abstinence Is Popular, And Doctors Are Worried

⭐ You're Dead to Me - Madam C.J. Walker

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Pop Radio • Romance

'80s Metal

The Cars Radio • Pump-up

Psychobilly Swing

Rock Mix • Party

Presenting Iron Maiden

[brooklynislandgirl]

@respondedinkind

First Contact {a plotted starter}

She did not join Star Fleet with visions of exploration dancing in her head. There was no real wonder what the galaxy might hold, what truths had yet to be discovered, and what civilisations Earth could learn from. Those were her mother's desires. She did not join Star Fleet to subjugate new worlds, to bring them under one authority and to share ~a euphemism as old as the idea of humankind itself~ resources for the betterment of a handful of people. That was what the Admiral worked tirelessly toward. And Star Fleet could not give her back the thing she coveted the most, the part of her that has been missing for the better part of a decade. No, she'd joined because it was expected of her; a duty and a fulfilment of a family legacy. There wasn't much she could argue about. She also had no actual intention to go into space. She would have preferred to remain on Earth, even in San Francisco. Closer to home than where she is now. The sea might be just as dark, might be just as cold but it was not a void. An endless expanse that contained so very little life. So why is she here? Aboard the Enterprise? Special project, they said, though to be honest, she isn't sure who they are. They had gotten Doctor McCoy to speak with her about the assignment and at first she might have fainted dead away. It wasn't til he opened his mouth ~same depth, timber but definitely not what she was expecting~ that the illusion is broken but she's already committed, isn't she? Chosen for her intellect, her range of skills and hobbies, and her relative obscurity. They know her parents and have seen how little contact she has with them. They have her brother's records and the name of the world he'd died on. And now they have her trapped in space, after signing her life away in triplicate, NDAs that come with prison time if they're broken. With a new patient she knows relatively little about. They tell her he is an alien species, but not what kind. They promise her she is in no danger even if the being is potentially monstrous, a destroyer of worlds. They give her a designation. Not even a name. They tell her to go along with whatever the rest of the crew is told and just how to file her reports. They tell her McCoy will be her immediate commanding officer. They tell her a lot of things, honestly, and some of it goes above and beyond her. Her shuttle docks and they show her to the lab she will be working in, an entire section more or less to herself, with labs, diagnostic and research stations, a surgical suite, and her own personal quarters. She has an official cover story as well. It takes her half as much time as the week given to her to settle in. She hears her door slide open. And that's when they bring him, the Alien. She expects some other-worldly creature. Some hulking thing with dripping mandibles and an exo-skeleton made of Rodinium. She expects an entire security detachment or twelve, with phasers set to anything other than stun. She expects... Not this. Okay so he's tall. But then, that's not a very impressive feat in comparison. Hair dark as a moonless night. Eyes that glacial hue between blue and green that's difficult to name, but that bite with a remote sort of chill. By human standards, high cheekbones, northern European skin tone, a nice mouth and.... And she takes a moment to lean to one side, trying valiantly peer around him. Then again to the other side ~he has impeccable posture and broad shoulders~ before her focus returns to his face. Except for the black uniform undershirt lacking rank or occupational colours, this...man... could be anyone. "Forgive me for maybe being out of line but..." Her hands clasp so that only her index fingers pressed together remain upright. They are tapped against her lips twice before she turns them in his direction, pointing. "I think you might be in the wrong place. I'm waiting for my new patient."

[brooklynislandgirl]

If she had a violent bone in her body, she would have slapped him so hard his teeth would rattle. How dare he. He doesn't know her. Doesn't know her family or how dear her brother had been to her in life. Her brother who had given his life in service to Star Fleet. Not a day goes by when she doesn't mourn his loss. Even being here, on the Enterprise, is her devotion to his dreams rather than her own. Instead, her features solidify into a mask of discontent and disapproval. "And just to what do I owe your wisdom? Because I certainly don't recall asking."

"Having a family doesn't mean that you stop being an individual. You know the best thing you can do for people that depend on you? Be honest with them, even if it means setting them free."

@brooklynislandgirl

[therapardalis]

[ @ensnchekov from here.]

-

Thera had been ... mostly kidding. Pavel might be way too young for her, but he's still a bright, engaging and not unhandsome lad, and she sees no reason why he couldn't find himself with a partner if that was what he wanted to do. Not to mention that her own occasions of 'missing breakfast' have often related very directly to the same sort of thing!

But on the other hand, gossip runs rampant in Engineering, and she thinks that if the kid had 'gotten lucky' she would have heard at least a whisper of it going around the replicators today - so she thought she might check in on him, just in case.

The casual concern doesn't spike when there's no reply - maybe he's not actually in there - but a frown marks her brow and she leans a little closer to the intercom with one ear. Which is when she hears the crash, and that's what cranks the dial from a mild amber up to red.

"Pavel?" Redundant, maybe, as she tries the door control and finds it unlocked, and the temperature of the room smacks her in the face like a hot, damp towel. What the hell - ?

The next thing is the fallen chair and the Russian Blanket Burrito, and she's hitting her communicator even as she darts to his side. "Medical to Chekov's quarters!" Then, assessment. Has he just brained himself falling over, or is ... no, she can see the 'clammy' even before she puts the back of her fingers to his brow, and resists the urge to pull them away at the heat.

"Pavel ..." Dammit, what's he done? "Pavel, are you with me?" A sigh, and she diverts for deliberately lighter as her fingers move to take his pulse, "I swear, kid, if you've just landed me in quarantine with cross-infection ..."